


Kidding Around

by ageless_aislynn



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Day 2, Gen, but because they are physically children here i'm marking this as gen and not shippy, despite being de-aged they are still mentally adults, just to be on the safe side, snowellsweek2020, snowellsweek2020 day 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:35:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24732451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ageless_aislynn/pseuds/ageless_aislynn
Summary: For Snowells Week 2020, Day 2 - Year 2: Snowells as ChildrenCaitlin and the Reverse Flash both get accidentally hit by a weapon that de-ages them. A bit of unexpected bonding occurs. ;)
Relationships: Caitlin Snow & Eobard Thawne
Comments: 8
Kudos: 15
Collections: We're A Team Right?





	Kidding Around

**Author's Note:**

> I never thought I’d try this trope but I had a lot of fun with it! If you read, I hope you enjoy! :D ♥

"This isn't funny," the Reverse Flash said in a high voice, pointing at Caitlin.

She tried not to laugh, she really did, but… "I can't believe it shrunk your suit, too," she said. "Look at how cute and tiny it is!"

He straightened up to his full current height of about 4 foot 10 and crossed his arms. "No man appreciates a woman calling any part of him 'cute and tiny.'"

She didn't bother stating the obvious: he was no more a _man_ right now than she was a _woman_. "Look," she said, trying for a calming tone. "Your friend--"

"He is _not_ my friend," he interrupted. "I don't have friends."

He'd meant for a scathing tone but it just came out rather sad. "Well, anyway," she said, glossing over it. "That thing he shot us with isn't permanent, right? Do you know what that weapon was?"

"Of course, I do. I designed it." He puffed out his thin chest.

She raised an eyebrow. "Why would you design a gun that turns people into children?"

"It wasn't supposed to. It was supposed to send people back to the time when they _were_ children. Apparently, it's…not quite perfected yet." Then he grumbled under his breath something about going to kill the bastard for stealing his tech.

"Hey, language!" she admonished.

"I'm not actually a twelve-year-old!" he shot back.

"I'd guess you're closer to ten," she evaluated.

He gave her a disgusted look, then finally drawled, "Whatever." Which didn't help his case at all but she decided not to mention that.

"Point being, this is going to wear off, right? Then we'll pop back to normal?"

"Yes," he said sullenly. "It shouldn't take more than an hour or two."

"All right, then. Do you want me to give you a lift somewhere? I'm assuming you don't have your speed or you would've already left."

"Are you going to carry me on your back or have you forgotten you're too short to reach the gas pedal now?"

She actually _hadn't_ factored in the fact that, at age ten, she hadn't yet had a significant growth spurt, so was currently quite short now. "I'll pull the seat all the way forward," she said, trying to stay upbeat. "I'm sure it'll be fine."

She held onto that positivity until they left the warehouse and stood looking at the empty place where her car had been.

"He stole my car?" she said, her voice rising in pitch.

"You'd almost think he was a criminal," he said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

To her mortification, tears welled up and spilled down her cheeks.

His expression became alarmed. "No, don't cry," he said quickly. "No crying."

"I'm not crying," she sniffled as she cried. "I'm just mad because your lousy friend stole my car! My purse was in that car!"

"He's _not_ my friend," he repeated, glancing about as if there would hopefully be a large sign telling him what to do with a sobbing, de-aged Caitlin Snow. "Look, why don't we start walking until we find somebody who'll call Cisco or Barry for you?"

"How do you know Cisco's name?" she demanded, the tears stopping as quickly as if a faucet had shut off.

"I, um, have done my research, of course," he stammered. "I know all about your team. Mwahaha."

"Was that supposed to be an evil laugh?"

He waved his hands dismissively in the air. "Just…walk, okay?"

***

It felt like they'd been trudging along for hours but she knew rationally it was probably no more than twenty minutes. They'd finally made it out of the industrial area but as they got into the fringes of Central City proper, she realized they had a new problem.

"Are those guys coming our way?" she muttered out of the side of her mouth as a group of teenage boys seemed to take an unhealthy interest in them. She had to admit, they made an attention-grabbing pair: two kids, one dressed in a small Reverse Flash suit, mask and all, and one dressed in a child-sized version of a business-casual blouse, skirt and heels. They looked like they were going to two very different types of costume parties.

"I'll take care of this," he said confidently despite the fact that each of the half a dozen teenagers was over a head taller than he was.

"Look at these two," the tallest boy sneered. "I wonder if their mommies know they're out all by their lonesom--? Oof!"

The Reverse Flash punched him squarely in the gut, grimly telling Caitlin, "Run!"

The group immediately converged on him, driving him to the sidewalk under a pile of punches and kicks. She looked around wildly for some sort of makeshift weapon and the best prospect she spotted was a knocked-over "Keep off the grass" sign. But its core was a steel pipe.

She picked it up and waded in, swinging as hard as she could and yelling like a banshee. Aiming for their legs, she tried to disable as many as she could as quickly as possible. She actually managed to send three of them rolling to the ground, clutching their knees, before a fourth caught her on the chin with a punch.

She rolled with the momentum, spinning in a circle and taking out his knee with the sign. Her jaw throbbed but adrenaline helped her to ignore it.

The Reverse Flash was up and fighting but the fact he had to punch _upwards_ wasn't doing him any favors. She went in two-handedly wielding the sign and suddenly they were no longer as favorable of targets. The remaining pair backed off.

"Come on, um, Rafi," she said, grabbing him by the arm and tugging.

He seemed to want to keep slugging but finally thought better of it and let her pull him in the opposite direction. She kept the sign, her fingers clutching the steel hard enough to hurt, and they ran down the street until the teens were no longer in view.

"'Rafi?"' he questioned as they slowed down. He was trying his hardest not to sound out of breath from the sprint.

She shrugged. "RF, Rafi," she said. "That was the first thing that came to mind. I don't exactly know your name, after all."

It was a fairly large hint but he studiously pretended to miss it. "I guess I could pull off being a Rafael," he said, touching his face and glaring at the blood that came from his split lip. "Look, put on your best innocent-on-the-verge-of-tears face and we can ask that shopkeeper if he'll let you use his phone. Oh, and you might want to drop the lead pipe you just beat up some teenagers with."

"It's not a pipe, it's a sign," she muttered, splitting hairs, but stuck it in a small planter with a few wan plants outside of one of the businesses they passed. "And I only had to resort to violence because _you_ came out punching. We could've tried to negotiate--"

He gave her a droll look. "Sure. They looked like the kind that loves to negotiate. Aggressively."

She screwed up her face at him. "Is that a Star Wars prequel reference?"

"What's a Star War?" he asked but the corner of his mouth twitched, giving him away.

***

As it turned out, he was right: the shop owner who was sweeping his front stoop was quick to let her borrow his phone to call "her brother" to come pick them up. They opted to wait at the park down the block a little further, sitting on the swings.

"You going to be okay?" she asked. The more time that passed, the more his face was swelling. One eye was almost completely shut and his split lip looked awful.

"As soon as I get my speed back, I'll heal," he said. "What about you? That guy clocked you pretty good."

She winced as she worked her jaw back and forth. "Well, I don't have speed-healing but I'll put an ice pack on it and it should be fine."

They sat quietly for a moment, watching the traffic going by and idly swinging. It amused her that even the fearsome Reverse Flash wasn't immune to the siren song of swinging while on a swing-set.

"Don't investigate things on your own anymore," he said eventually, his tone somber. "It's not safe."

"How do you know I was investigating something?"

He gave her a look no less dampened by his injuries. "What? This was _hang out at an abandoned warehouse_ day and no one told me? You were hunting a meta."

"I didn't expect you to be there," she said a little petulantly. "I found a promising lead and nobody else was around and I…"

"What?" he prompted when she let her sentence trail off.

"I wanted to prove that I can do more than just patching people up and coming up with the occasional scientific answer. I want to be useful in the field, too."

"Why? No, I'm serious," he said when she curled her lip at him. "You're a vital part of your team already. You don't need to be the muscle, too."

"How would you know any of that? More 'research?'"

He stared straight forward, swinging a little more aggressively. "Research is very important."

"Yeah, well," she said in an agreeing-to-disagree tone.

"Are you going to tell your team what I look like?" he asked.

"You look like a kid," she scoffed. "Wait, you have blue eyes like approximately 9 percent of the world's population. Wow, I've cracked your identity with _that_ , haven't I?"

"Do you expect me to feel bad for you and tell you my name or something?"

She scowled at him. "That would be great, sure."

"Tell 'em it's Rafi," he said with a shrug. There was definitely a gleam in his remaining visible eye.

"Yeah, they'll love that," she said, then she caught sight of a familiar van working its way through traffic. "Oh, there's--"

When she looked back, the other swing was empty, though was twisting wildly. Turning, she saw him running as fast as a normal kid could run towards the line of trees leading deeper into the park.

"I can still see you, you know?!" she called after him. "You need to work on your Batman escape!"

He flipped her off over his shoulder without looking back, then disappeared into the shadows.

She was still laughing when Cisco pulled the van into the parking lot.

***

Several hours later, Caitlin unlocked her front door, thankful that Barry had located her abandoned car, no worse for wear, and with even her purse and valuables still inside. Her jaw was quite sore but not as much as it could've been, all considering. Returning to her full-grown adult self had mitigated the injury a little, it seemed.

She'd just locked her door behind herself and tossed her purse onto the nearby side table when she noticed an anomaly: a small gift box sat on her coffee table, wrapped in shiny gold paper and tied with a red bow.

 _I hope that isn't going to blow up,_ she thought, cautiously approaching. There was a note folded next to it and she gingerly picked it up and opened it to read in a bold, masculine handwriting:

_Don't worry. It's not going to blow up._

"Good to know," she murmured and picked the box up next. She untied the bow and pulled the paper apart with care. It was so nicely wrapped, it was a bit of a shame to have to undo it.

Inside, she pulled the top of the box off and there was another note written in the same hand:

_To Slugger, From Rafi  
Just in case._

Underneath the note was a keychain with a baseball bat attached to it. Printed on the bat in small but exacting letters were the words _Keep off the grass._


End file.
